After about 16k km I thought my downtube gear levers needed a bit of a service, as the front changer (friction) in particular is starting to make ominous creaking noises.
I have a strong memory that one does not lubricate friction levers, but having taken them off I can't see anything elst to do that might improve them... any ideas?
Shiman SL-A400, about 6-7 yrs old, fwiw.
Brendan -- Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-338562; Room F2-025 x 3147 [email hidden] http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html
After about 16k km I thought my downtube gear levers needed a bit of a service, as the front changer (friction) in particular is starting to make ominous creaking noises.
I have a strong memory that one does not lubricate friction levers, but having taken them off I can't see anything elst to do that might improve them... any ideas?
I've oiled friction levers with no disaster resulting. You could always degrease the bits if it didn't work for yours. (Sorry I don't know the SL-A400).
"Pete Biggs" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Brendan Halpin said:
After about 16k km I thought my downtube gear levers needed a bit of a service, as the front changer (friction) in particular is starting to make ominous creaking noises.
I have a strong memory that one does not lubricate friction levers, but having taken them off I can't see anything elst to do that might improve them... any ideas?
I've oiled friction levers with no disaster resulting. You could always degrease the bits if it didn't work for yours. (Sorry I don't know the SL-A400).
I'll second that - the internals are the same as bar end levers, and I've freed up stiff ones of those before -WD40, not oil, but it worked. Didn't take them off thought - just squirted and waggled it some.
After about 16k km I thought my downtube gear levers needed a bit of a service, as the front changer (friction) in particular is starting to make ominous creaking noises.
I have a strong memory that one does not lubricate friction levers, but having taken them off I can't see anything elst to do that might improve them... any ideas?
Shiman SL-A400, about 6-7 yrs old, fwiw.
Your memory is taking you back to the old friction levers, pre-indexing. Even then a very little light lubrication didn't hurt, and with indexed levers it's certainly not a problem.
"Pete Biggs" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
I've oiled friction levers with no disaster resulting. You could always degrease the bits if it didn't work for yours. (Sorry I don't know the SL-A400).
I'll second that - the internals are the same as bar end levers, and I've freed up stiff ones of those before -WD40, not oil, but it worked. Didn't take them off thought - just squirted and waggled it some.
Amazing what a bit of WD40 will do! These poorly neglected shifters are now working like new -- it had never occurred to me that they might be responsible for so much of the decline in responsiveness of the whole gear system.
Brendan -- Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-338562; Room F2-025 x 3147 [email hidden] http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html
